So this morning I had the privilege and opportunity to be a guinea pig for a couple of scientists over at the Spaulding National Running Center, a part of Harvard. The folks at the NRC are studying the biomechanics of those of us who a) run barefoot or barefoot style and b) have not had any injuries to the lower extremities recently that would keep us from running. I jumped at the chance to participate, in part because it sounded like fun and in part because in a couple of weeks I will get a High-Definition, Super Slow Motion recording of my stride along with what my GRF (Ground Reaction Force) is. All super cool stuff, but nothing to do with today’s post.

While the scientists were marking me up with pen and then attaching tiny reflectors all over my body, they became somewhat frustrated. It turns out that my skin, for whatever reason, has a higher resistance to ink than that of a typical person. In addition, my level of adhesiveness is also substantially lower. This is not due to lotion or moisturizer – they had made it very clear that we were not to use anything of that sort before coming in. The various reflectors took many times more tape and adhesive spray that their typical subjects required. One of the scientists joked that I must be made of Teflon.